Once upon a time a king, in the company of his ministers, went to the imperial garden for a walk. When he was walking around a pond, a strange idea
26 upon him and he asked, “How many buckets(桶) of water are there in the pond?” The ministers looked at each other,
27 to give an answer.
Rather
28 , the king ordered, “You have three days’ grace. Any one who offers an answer will be handsomely awarded. Those who fail will be
29 .”
The time limit was due in the twinkling（闪烁）of an eye, yet the ministers were still at their wit’s end. At this time a child appeared who declared that he knew the answer. The king told his
30 ministers to go with the child for the measurement. To their
31 , the child refused the suggestion with a smile, “It is very easy. No
32 to go to the pond.” This made the king laugh
33 , “Alright, let us know what it is.” The child winked (眨眼) and said, “That
34 on the size of the bucket. If it is as big as the pond, there is one bucket of water; if it is half as big, two buckets; if one third as big, three buckets; if...”“Stop! That’s it. You’ve got the
35 .” The king was satisfied and the child was duly rewarded.
Why did the ministers feel it so different to settle the problem? Because they fell in a pitfall (陷阱), following a wrong way of thinking. People’s thinking often goes a habitual way — the beaten track of straightforwardness.
36 is a static (静态的) way presupposing every object definite and certain, i.e. the size of the pond and the bucket should be clearly
37 . If one of them is unknown, it will be difficult to do the measurement, let alone
38 . Why not change your mode of thought — from static to dynamic（动态的）, from concrete to
39 ? If you adopt an indirect way and try to find out the proportional relation between the pond and the bucket, you’ll get an answer — flexible yet
40 to solve the problem.
Sometimes to get out of the difficulty one must change one’s way of thinking, or simply change one’s approach towards a problem.
| 小题1: | | A．fixed | B．focused | C．came | D．looked |
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| 小题2: | | A．struggling | B．thinking | C．falling | D．failing |
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| 小题3: | | A．disappointed | B．excited | C．pleased | D．contented |
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| 小题4: | | A．killed | B．punished | C．blamed | D．scolded |
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| 小题5: | | A．exciting | B．amazing | C．surprising | D．trembling |
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| 小题6: | | A．doubt | B．surprise | C．envy | D．delight |
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| 小题7: | | A．good | B．use | C．need | D．wonder |
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| 小题8: | | A．wonderfully | B．joyfully | C．cheerfully | D．doubtfully |
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| 小题9: | | A．decides | B．depends | C．calls | D．looks |
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| 小题10: | | A．award | B．reward | C．answer | D．number |
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| 小题12: | | A．marked | B．measured | C．signed | D．known |
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| 小题13: | | A．another | B．other | C．one | D．both |
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| 小题14: | | A．detailed | B．easy | C．simple | D．abstract |
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| 小题15: | | A．acceptable | B．available | C．adequate | D．proper |
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